Canberra Hot Air Balloon Festival

Decided to tick off another item on the Bucket List - the hot air balloon festival in Canberra, the political capital of Australia. 

I was able to stop off on the way in Goulburn and Collector, two other historical towns so it was a packed 2 days. 

 Most of the large balloons ignited but didn't launch due to poor wind conditions and most of the decent shots were taken on the ground. I spent some considerable time balloon chasing when it was decided to launch the balloons from a location other than the one I was at :-) Thank goodness I had my Navman as I ended up on the top of a large hill on a dirt road only to glimpse the balloons as they landed. I guess it was better than nothing :-)


View Balloon Landing Places in a larger map

The light was fairly lacklustre so I decided to try out Nik Software HDR Efex Pro. This one was very grainy and I can hear all the purists moaning, but I like it.

St. John's Orphanage Goulburn

Another location which keeps calling me back is the old orphanage on the hill - St. John's - overlooking the city of Goulburn. Opened on the 17th March 1912, the Sisters of Mercy ran the orphanage for its duration until closing in 1978. The building was designed to house up to 100 boys but that figure reached as high as 250 during the war years. It was a foundling orphanage which meant that children who were placed here usually had at least one surviving parent. During the Depression, it was common for families to keep older children and leave younger ones in the orphanage as there was not enough money to care for all the children.  

 I've visited on 3 occasions now, exploring different rooms each time. The last time I visited on my way down to the Canberra Balloon Spectacular and as luck would have it, there was a local wandering around inside so I was brave enough this time to explore upstairs with him. Motivation was high after discovering the following video on YouTube. It seems to be very difficult to locate much information on the internet about St. John's. 

During all visits access was easy as there was no scaffolding erected even though it is obviously going to be demolished to make way for some aged retirement villages. Until my third visit I'd been wanting to go upstairs but I thought it was unwise in case I had an accident or the floorboards were damaged.  It also gave me the creeps as the stairwell was really dark and although it wasn't a windy day, there was the sound of a door which kept banging.  On my third visit when I was not alone, it didn't appear nearly so haunting but there is still a sadness which pervades the air.

 Other links :
Boys Homes
Flickr images
Wikipedia